Cohen Leaves Lenox For A Less Spoiled Pasture

File under: Gurubusting and The Siddhi of PR

Apparently, some folks in Lenox, MA are pissed off that Andrew Cohen is shipping out with his EnlightenNext org, and they've got fingers pointed at American Guru author William Yenner. But based on Yenner's 13-year sojourn as an inner-circle member, Cohen has no business teaching nondual realization at all:

During my 13 years with Andrew Cohen, as a member of his inner circle of students, manager of Foxhollow, and a member of the Board of Directors, I was witness to countless instances of abusive behavior toward students on a regular basis. The strategy at EnlightenNext has always been to "destroy the ego", believing it to be the main obstacle to spiritual "evolution". Andrew's tactics are largely based on ever increasing levels of demands and psychological pressure on the "ego", which is often how the abuse results. I have witnessed such treatment escalate in some cases to emotional, financial and even physical abuse. In far too many cases students were coerced to behave in ways that violated their own dignity, privacy and good sense, all in the belief that only a self-limiting ego would resist their guru's instruction.

Can you say ego-fixation? And that whole idea of destroying the ego is so 2000 and late.

Not that it's going to stop everyone from going. Cohen has rendered himself a star, and there will always be folks who want to catch some of that "shine." His being an asshole isn't likely to hobble his appeal to that reflex. In fact, it's just as likely to enhance it with some folks.

Are T & M Headed For Splitsville?

File under: Satscams and The Siddhi of PR

[Ed.note: This is the sort of thing we want to post now. If we got more tips like this, there'd be more good content on this site. :::hint:::]

CONFIDENTIAL SOURCE

Girish Varma is Maharishi Mahesh Yogi's nephew. He runs the TM Movement in India.

Although King Nader Raam (an MD from Lebanon) was appointed by Maharishi as his official successor, he is hardly recognized as such by Girish who obviously fashions himself as the next Maharishi (my gosh, the family resemblance is eerie!). See the following link for more details:

http://groups.yahoo.com/group/FairfieldLife/message/241161

Nader is now happily ensconced in a beautiful home in a fashionable section of Paris with a wife and two children (a fact he has kept secret until recently) and this has really pissed off Garish who fully expected to be the successor. Girish's reasoning is that since he, Girish, is a celibate AND Maharishi's blood relative it simply isn't fair that someone who is living inthe decadent West and has two daughters and a wife and all the creature comforts gets to be boss! The top position should be kept in the Family Business, seems to be Garish's reasoning.

A year or so ago, one of the higher-ups in the TM organisation, Bevan Morris, started to question Girish's fealty to Nader when private emails were released but this was quickly hushed up. Bevan's doubts were raised because Girish had started an entirely new major project in India without ever mentioning Nader or any of the "official" TM catch-words that were in vogue at the time. Work of a real rogue element.

Girish is on the precipice of separating himself and the Indian TM money (Maharishi sent the bulk of the TM fortunes to India to be under Girish's watchful eye before he, Maharishi, died) from the international organisation and starting his own TM Movement. It is a full time job for the TM higher-ups to appease this guy and continually please him so he doesn't bolt, which is what they had to do in a major way with the Bevan dust-up.

But one look at the photographs Girish enables to be taken of himself pretty much tells the whole story. Odds are that it is only a matter of time when an official scism occurs, Girish flies the coup, and the spoils divided. Of course, Girish has absolutely no idea what that will do to the already greatly diminished credibility of the TM organisation in the West. He simply doesn't understand that it will be on the order of what happened to the then 13-year-old Guru Maharaji back in the '70s when his mother disowned him, effectively destroying their worldwide movement forever.